Misc.

Hi Folks — I have finished tagging all of the posts by genre. Hopefully this will help to make this blog a more useful resource for finding information. The available Categories can be found on the main site, by going to www.blackwomeninrock.info.

Let me know if there are any additional comments or suggestions on how this site can be made easier to navigate. Thanks! — Jaleesa

Hi All — I’m planning on adding music genre categories to all of the posts. One of the most frequent questions I get from people tends to be related to finding Black Women Rockers who are tied to a specific genre. It has always been my intention that this blog be used as a resource above anything else, and making it easier for you to get the information you are looking for is always a priority.

Tagging the thousands of posts that have accumulated on this blog will take some time, but I will soldier through it and post another update once this process has been completed. The music genres will be listed under the ‘Categories’ section so they can easily be found.

If there’s any features you would like to see here, or if you have any other questions or comments, feel free to reach out to the blog in either the comments section on this post, or by email (jaleesa@blackwomeninrock.info). I always welcome feedback and never mind serving as a sort of librarian to help anyone find information. 🙂

Hi there! The blog is in the process of being moved from Tumblr to WordPress. Some posts may look extremely out of wack as a result. Please bear with us while things get set up and cleaned up. Thanks!

EDIT: Some posts lost their attribution in the import process. If you see something that’s yours and would like to be credited for it, please email jaleesa@blackwomeninrock.info with the link in question, and we will fix it for you. Thanks!

EDIT (11/11/2016): Migration is complete as of today. Some posts that are on the Tumblr version of the blog weren’t uploaded here — they either were off-topic, were duplicates, or were hard to organize because of the loss of attribution. Enjoy the content going forward, and thanks for sticking by us!

We are looking for brave works of speculative short fiction by authors from the African diaspora that reject regressive ideas of blackness, respectability politics, and stereotype. Please submit your bravest, blackest, most difficult to sell stories to us. We want to read them.

We want stories that are well written, of high quality, and generally easy to read on a screen.

“black women were created of brown sugar and warm honey. the sweetest thing to bless the earth. be wary of anyone who tells you otherwise.”― alexandra elle.

THE HISTORY OF THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” STEREOTYPE

This was popularized by the 1930s sitcom Amos ‘n’ Andy. While this show was based around a historic black community, their use of the “angry black woman” stereotype was created by white men, as they were the only ones behind the making of the show. Unsurprisingly, this was not the only time this stereotype was used in television shows and developed by non-black writers.

THE EFFECT THIS STEREOTYPE HAS ON BLACK WOMEN

While some may see this stereotype as a laughing matter, it’s become a serious problem for black women who simply want to be able to express themselves. This stereotype removes black women’s rights to voice their opinions with the respect they deserve.

Although some people may see this stereotype as not being around, women such as Nicki Minaj, Leslie Jones, and Beyoncé would disagree, as it has effected them (and more black women) all in the latest year. The most recent (famous) victim of this is Fifth Harmony’s Normani Kordei. Because of how insane it is, this case is the perfect one to highlight on this article, as it perfectly portrays just how far people will go to paint black women as angry for their own benefit.

It should come as no surprise that Kordei has faced racism for the entire four years of the group’s existence. This discrimination however, got even more out of hand within this past year. Around the time that Kordei released two dance videos and the news of her group member’s (Camila Cabello) solo career got out, Cabello’s fans in particular began harshly criticizing Kordei by referring to her as “shady” and “a diva.” There was no valid reason behind their claims, as she hadn’t done anything that could be described by either of those words, yet one of their excuses was that she “retweeted too many compliments about herself.”

Their microaggressive behavior only progressed as Cabello started receiving criticism (for multiple reasons) and as Kordei started began receiving more praise and recognition. This behavior included body shaming and slut shaming, claiming that she had no talent, making false claims about her character, sending her death threats, and attacking her with extremely direct racism. Most recently, their anger stems from Kordei referring to her group mate, Cabello, as “cute and quirky.” How this makes sense, no one is sure, but their behavior has gone so far that Kordei is now on a break from social media.

Kordei has always spoken up about the racism she’s received, yet Cabello’s fans have always dismissed this and continued labeling her as a diva. She still faces criticism from these fans, who refer to her as “weak” and “attention seeking” for taking a social media break.

While there are more articles antagonizing Kordei (many of them praising Cabello for her “defense speech”), very few have managed to properly address the situation.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP THIS STEREOTYPE

A big influence on this stereotype is the media’s portrayal of black women. The writers of these articles need to re-evaluate their racial bias. Another influence is the reactions people outside of the media hold, and in that case they also need to re-evaluate their racial bias and take black women more seriously.

In the particular case concerning Normani Kordei, there are actions you can take to make her social media experience easier upon her return. You can spread this Blavity article instead of other biased ones, as it accurately depicts Kordei and the situation at hand. You can also report and block the following Twitter accounts, as they have contributed to the racism and microaggression against her for a long time (many have shown this behavior toward other members of Fifth Harmony as well):

#BlackGirlsDoingShit is because we do shit that’s relevant, important, and ground breaking. Our hands, voices, spirits, and talents propel us to a place that all we have to do is assume the position. #BlackGirlsDoingShit is for black girls who rejected society’s notion that they couldn’t have it all, we don’t need anyone’s validation, because we doing this shit.

I get really frustrated at the lack of black women in metal, hardcore, rock (and other such genres). Do we not have a place in music unless its for us to shake our asses and flash our tits. On a side note I dont think Straight Line Stitch has been mentioned at all (I could be wrong). An amazing band fronted by a kick ass black chick whose singing and screaming can outdo any man!

– – – – – – – – –

(Straight Line Stitch has been mentioned a couple of times and Alexis separately too, check out the tag if you’re interested 🙂 )

– – – – – – – – –

It’s really more of a lack of representation than a lack of women. No one is really going to push a black woman out into mainstream media that doesn’t serve conventional narratives about who and what black women are because it doesn’t serve the status quo. No matter how talented the women involved actually are, you’re not going to hear about them. You have black women playing every instrument in bands like these, black women fronting these bands, but because of the lack of representation no one knows about these women and everyone thinks that we’re just not out here, or that there’s just one or two who do this sort of thing. It’s the way I used to think.

Hence the reason my blog came to be. I had an obsessive need to collect every woman related to rock music that I could find in one place just to prove that there’s isn’t just one or two of us out here, and so far (with a lot of help!) I’ve been incredibly successful. It’s up to us to represent ourselves.

Reminding myself to tag this post specifically with all of the women I’ve found related to metal and hardcore/punk, which is a fraction of the black women I’ve found that do general rock music as a whole.

– – – – – – – – –

As a black woman who loves Punk Rock/ Pop Punk and can never find bands that have anything other than white males, I’m here for this 100%

– – – – – – – – –

@khartoom Finished tagging this post the best I could with Tumblr’s apparent tag limits, have at it! ☻

Thank you again!! It’s always a pleasure when I come across artists or bands that I didn’t know about, and since I have a personal bias towards punk and metal it’s doubly awesome when the black women artists I discover are in these types of bands. Thank you thank you thank you!!

EDIT: @gates-of-horn-and-ivory I probably forgot about this since it rarely gets used, but I actually have a submit page for people to drop in media from artists I haven’t featured on this blog yet. Sometimes people use it to promote their own bands, but I set it up both for that and for people to give me stuff I don’t have already! I love submissions, and definitely mind you submitting anything you’d like for the bands you brought to my attention. Thanks!

@blackwomeninrock This is so weird. Lady Bo was my full blooded Aunt. This post above might make a powerful picture for my own personal photo album. This year I hope my Aunt begins to get the recognition she deserved from the media. The Grammys and Oscars’ “In Memoriam” mentions would make a good start. Cheers..

In complete agree with you! Black female rock artists in particular are often not given the recognition that they deserve, and this definitely needs to change.

“My wife and I really wanted to make sure that our daughter felt fearless. We made a special effort to find women who had broken down barriers, who had been a ‘first’ something. We are hoping that she will be able to benefit from being associated with some of these powerful women. As a photographer, I know how important images are. The portrayal of black women is not always positive, so I wanted to do something to combat that.” —Marc Bushelle